


Care and Keeping of Your Kappa

by EzraTheBlue



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Japanese Mythology & Folklore, M/M, Non-Linear Narrative, Rimming, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 22:27:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5181941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EzraTheBlue/pseuds/EzraTheBlue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Gojyo is reverted to a more feral nature under the influence of the Minus Wave? Hakkai must draw on whatever resources he has to maintain his favorite kappa's health and well-being in order to keep him sane until a solution is found. Minor spoilers for recent chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Care and Keeping of Your Kappa

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a birthday present for Gojyo! Just a wild hare of an idea that seemed appropriate enough for everyone's favorite kappa's birthday. This started as a stream of consciousness, and I mostly ran with it, so I hope it doesn't come across as being particularly disorganized. I had to do some quickie research on kappa myth, and thanks to everyone who helped! I might have butchered a little of it. I think it's been said Gojyo isn't actually a kappa, but he gets called it enough for me to use it.
> 
> No beta. All mistakes are mine (and if I made any, please let me know!).

**Care and Keeping of Your Kappa**

The first thing to remember was that they liked water, needed water. They could come out, but shouldn't stay out for long periods of time. If Hakkai had known Gojyo's source river, or that of his ancestry, he would have carried him to it himself, but it was surely impossibly far away. Besides that, he very much wanted to keep Gojyo here, with him.

Instead, since the change had come, Gojyo had lived in one of the communal bathtubs at Sharak's temple, overfilled until nearly overflown. He would half-drain it a few times a day, not completely lost on his own needs, and Hakkai would fill it again with warm water. It was a ritual. Everything was becoming a ritual now.

Hakkai approached the tub, cucumber in one hand, a plate of fish in the other, and dropped the cucumber in before kneeling down at the edge. He set the plate down next to the tub, as Gojyo, his hair fanned out around him underwater like blood streaming in the stills, grasped the cucumber with clawed hands and gobbled a most of it down, then tossed the ends onto the splashed floor behind him. Then, he emerged from the water, bursting forth and tossing all that sopping hair back over his shoulder. The water just reached over his navel at a full stand, and sloshed out around him as he emerged. He managed a toothy smile at Hakkai. “Yo.” Slit-pupils, yellow eyes, jagged teeth meant for ripping and tearing rather than charming, broad grins. “How's my _keeper_ doing today?”

Hakkai half-bowed from his kneeling position, and Gojyo returned the gesture. “I was here three hours ago. Do you remember?”

“I'm sure I'd remember.” Gojyo lifted his hands in a shrug, sharp claws glinting in the dim pink candlelight, but he held his hand out. Hakkai swallowed as he spotted the black tattoo that wrapped all the way down his arm and up past his elbow now, ribbed tendrils reminiscent of a fish's trailing fin. It was longer than it had been last time he'd looked. Then, Gojyo's eyes flashed with recognition. “You said you'd bring me food, yeah? You promised.”

Hakkai hid his apprehension behind a smile. “I suppose I did.” He slid the plate at his side forward. “I kept my word, you see?” Gojyo's grin broadened, and he slid down into the water and paddled to the edge, opening his mouth wide.

This was how it had been in the few days since the change had come. Sanzo was still recovering, his body still all but ground meat from his right shoulder to his hip, and while Goku had offered to help, his first and only visit to Gojyo thus far had ended in Goku bolting from the bathing room, screaming and covering his backside with both hands. (He knew the second thing anyone knew about kappas: they'd pull you in and drown you, and it only got worse from there.) It had fallen to Hakkai to take care of him. He was still his friend. While Sanzo and Sharak, each to the best of their capabilities, researched ways to reverse the condition, checking all of Sharak's records of Sanzo history for interactions between the sutras, how they affected youkai, any possible way of reversing whatever had happened to wake the water sprite buried in his genetic code and drowned in his blood, Hakkai researched the water sprite himself.

He knew a few stories about kappas from his boyhood. Even though he was raised in an orphanage of sisters, they were still sisters who'd lived amongst the youkai in Shangri-La, and they still told him the same warnings most grandmothers must have shouted whenever their charges ran off to play by the river.

Don't go too close. Watch your ankles. They'll grab you and pull you in. They'll eat your liver out.

Hakkai tried to focus on the few positives: they were wise, they had knowledge of medicine, they were incredibly loyal once befriended.

That last one had held true from the start. Hakkai owed Gojyo at least that much in return. He didn't mind feeding him freshly scaled and gutted snowtrout from his hand, never had minded dressing the fish. It was all just part of the ritual. The way Gojyo wrinkled his nose whenever Hakkai held out a chunk of a fillet told him he might as well not have bothered.

“It's slimy.” He jawed as he chewed, showing off a mouthful of pulpy, raw fish, bright white against dull red. “I want crunchy.” Hakkai was polite enough not to grimace at his show of displeasure.

“I'm not sure how your system will handle scales and bones. This is what I brought you.” Kappas in the wild might have been able to eat a fresh fish just by biting its head off and tearing off the fins, but Gojyo was not a wild kappa. He didn't have a plate on his head, so no matter how many times Hakkai greeted him with a bow, he wouldn't dump the source of his strength onto the ground. He had sworn that when he'd grabbed Goku's ankle, he was only teasing (but then, he'd been a little more lucid three days ago). He had quickly learned, though, that his diet had changed.

Hakkai had tried bringing him a normal meal after he'd been confined to the tub, and though Gojyo ate the rice and steamed vegetables, he had a stomachache only a few hours later. The only vegetable he would take anymore was cucumber. Hakkai had flirted briefly with the idea of giving him eggplant or soba, but Gojyo was asking only for meat. Hakkai had asked him what kind he wanted, but he'd batted his gaze down to the surface of the water and mumbled, “Just meat.”

The diet of lean fish seemed the best option.

Hakkai knew what kappas usually ate, what they found the most delicious. Those were not on the menu; Hakkai wasn't sure where he would get a child that would avoid notice. Kappa had been known to seize cows and horses and drag them in, but Hakkai didn't want to even consider how to get one of those to feed Gojyo, or how sick Gojyo would make himself trying to eat the whole animal, or, god forbid, the messy cleanup. No, there had to be a line, and this was the line Hakkai would toe.

Gojyo didn't complain after Hakkai's rebuke. He merely scrunched his nose, but accepted the next fillet into his mouth. Hakkai, sitting on his knees, shifted his weight to keep his ankles back.

His meal done, Gojyo backed into the water to wet his face and hair again, his scales glimmering in the candlelight. They became more visible by the day, too; once flat and matte against his skin, merely little patches of shine, but now he was covered, and some of the scales reflected lighter or darker colors than his natural skintone. Some of them were starting to look green, gleaming emerald on the wall as he turned. The mark across his back stretched from his neck all the way down to his hip, the fins that trailed down his arms trailing back to the interwoven tracery at the nape of his neck, resembling knotwork across the small of his back, or, with a touch of imagination, the reticulation on a salamander's back. Hakkai didn't want to admire him in this form, because Gojyo was still under the scales and teeth, but the fear was there that the scales and teeth were just under Gojyo all along. If Gojyo had known of his affections before, he'd made no mention. Now, just noticing that Hakkai was observing him stretching out made him smirk.

“Perks of the job?”

“We've had this conversation, Gojyo.” Hakkai tilted his cheek into his hand in tired resignation. Gojyo pouted, then lowered himself into the water and stretched out into a back float, his hair drifting around him, his naked sex plumped in the warm water. Hakkai swallowed, then sighed and let his fingers drift in the water.

Gojyo hadn't been able to swim very well before, but then, a kappa drowning in a river would be like a monkey falling from a tree. Hakkai was still ready to jump in if he somehow proved less than apt in what had become his best-suited habitat. But then again, more had changed in Gojyo's mind than merely his inclinations towards less-human food and an aquatic environment.

He was forgetting things. His short-term memory seemed patchy, at best. He remembered little things, promises to return, promises to bring clean water. He sometimes forgot how long it had been since Hakkai had visited, only an awareness than he had been gone. His long-term memory was more questionable. Hakkai had tried to make conversation before, and mentioned how eager (or at least anxious) Sanzo was to get back on the road. Gojyo had seemed indifferent. He instead asked if Hakkai would take him to a river: “I want more room to swim.”

“It's far too cold,” Hakkai had answered, which was true, but it wasn't the truth holding him back. What truly worried him was that Gojyo would swim downstream, never to be seen again. Gojyo promised he'd follow along, follow Hakkai wherever he went (at least he was still aware there was a journey to be taken), but when Gojyo was forgetting seeing Hakkai only a few hours before, he couldn't take the chance that Gojyo, who wasn't quite a kappa, might break that oath.

Now, he seemed content to lounge in the tub, stretched out as far as he could and showing off his scales and body. Hakkai watched, unable to help watching, because as beautiful and sensual this form was, it was less Gojyo every moment, a metamorphosis in the form of a trainwreck. He was losing more of himself, his fighting spirit, hour by hour.

When the change had first come, suddenly, claws and teeth and the first patches of scales on his shoulder blades, Gojyo had laughed about it. Goku had teased him about being right all along, every taunt of “pervy kappa” proving true, and Gojyo only feigned anger at Hakkai for hiding his knowledge of the mark for only a few hours. Hakkai only had to give penitence in the form of a deeply sincere apology to get acceptance again:

“Hey, hey, you had no idea this would actually happen. I'm not mad.” Gojyo's earnest grin had flinched a little, and he squeezed Hakkai's shoulder tight. “Let's just fix it, yeah? You and the priest are gonna fix it, right?”

Right, of course right, and Gojyo had sat back to wait patiently in the cell he and Hakkai were sharing. Hakkai, too, sat back to wait for word from Sanzo or Sharak, playing Shogi and paper sumo and watching. Sanzo had been angrier than Gojyo, and had told him, “You tried to hide him, now you watch him.” So he watched his face and body over their typical interactions, pretending nothing had changed, as his clawed fingers slipped on the tiles and scratched the board, as he growled in frustration in a lower, coarser voice than usual, and then as the scales on his face started to flake and dry. He scratched his cheeks and arms until they bled.

That was when Hakkai had coaxed Gojyo into the bathtub, promising relief. (Of course kappas needed water, that was the first thing anyone knew about kappas.) That was when Hakkai realized the mark was only getting bigger. Gojyo verbally protested getting into the water even while peeling off his clothes and kicking them aside, as Hakkai studied the mark where it trailed across his shoulder blades. He still sighed with relief when he stepped down into the tub, but once submerged, asked, “So, how long do I have to stay in here?”

“I'm not sure.” Hakkai sat at the water's edge, near where Gojyo peered out. Gojyo moaned and sank back down into the water, bubbles streaming up, but when Hakkai leaned forward to try to see what he was doing, Gojyo had snapped a hand out and wrapped it around his neck.

Gojyo's claws cut in and bled. Hakkai still had the scratches. Gojyo had been wild-eyed, but begged forgiveness the second he realized what he'd done. “Shit, fuck, I didn't mean ta! I-- something in my head said it'd be funny-- I'd never really--” He paddled back to the opposite end of the tub. “I'm sorry, man, I'm sorry.” His eyes, still golden-yellow but still so familiar, fixed on Hakkai's meaningfully. “I'll never hurt you. I promise I'll never really hurt you.”

Hakkai had felt the magic in those words, something locking around the both of them. Kappas never broke an oath. He knew then that things would only get worse.

He left Gojyo alone only because he needed to tend to him, and told Gojyo as much: “It takes time to gather the fish from the traps, and I do need to speak with Sanzo and Sharak about their progress.”

Gojyo seemed to understand, nodding, and Hakkai liked to pretend he would content himself with the waterproof cards he'd found for him, paddling around the tub, or maybe dozing at the bottom. He knew, upon his return, that it hadn't been so. There was always a trail of wet footprints splattered around the tub and drying into the floorboards, and sometimes, when Hakkai came close, he could hear Gojyo mumbling to himself through the door.

“ _Not hungry, you're not hungry. Not... no.”_

The trail was drier every time he came back. It almost wasn't there this time. Gojyo did seem perfectly content paddling lazily about, turning his body over in the water to make sure every single one of his scales caught the light, and so Hakkai could take in every inch of his tattoos. Hakkai had to swallow and remind himself: he was supposed to be taking care of him.

He had been forced to admit a rather harsh truth to himself in light of spending hours with a nude Gojyo: namely, that he was not displeased at the sight of a nude Gojyo. Quite the opposite, really. He had self-control enough at first to steal a glimpse of his sculpted musculature, tuck the image away for later (much later, when Gojyo did not have to remain nude for hours on end because he wouldn't have to be in the water), and do what needed to be done. That was the first day. By the second day, after a night spent with little sleep, he found his eyes lingering on the lines of his abdomen and pectoral muscles, the firm trapezoid of his back, the cut of his jaw: gods, there was so much to observe. Gojyo, too, observed, those gleaming eyes as sharp as his teeth, and smirked when he realized he was being perused like a menu.

“You like what you see? Don't lie to me, I can tell.”

Hakkai swallowed the lump in his throat to quietly explain, “You are lovely to behold, yes.”

“Lovely, eh?” Gojyo snickered, and lolled onto the boards next to Hakkai. “Come an' get a closer look.” He found the hem of Hakkai's slacks with his fingernails and twiddled the fabric, his gaze slowly, lazily swiping across his form, and Hakkai swallowed again, though his mouth had gone dry.

“I can't do that, Gojyo. You're not thinking clearly. I won't do anything either of us might regret.”

Gojyo had moaned, but that was the end of that conversation. That was a day ago. Hakkai had slept even less the night before. Gojyo's scales only shone brighter. And though he smiled and smirked as he turned around in the little space he had, Hakkai felt an urgency in his words.

“You want to fuck me.”

“You're not in your right mind, Gojyo. You're becoming something you're not.”

“And what if this is what I am, Hakkai?” Gojyo landed on his knees mid-stroke, and rested his hands on the edge of the tub again. “What if this is just me now? What if I don't change back?”

“You shouldn't talk like that.” Gojyo was staring dead through him, and the heat in Hakkai's stomach was making it hard to think, let alone contradict him.

“Would you let me swim free if you can't fix me?”

“No.” Hakkai shook his head, and put his hands over Gojyo's. “If this is who you are now, then I will accept that.”

Gojyo flipped his hands and seized Hakkai's. “Accept this.” He leaned up and forward, pulled Hakkai in, and forced him into a kiss. Hakkai relented into an assault of hot mouth and demanding teeth, fervently kissing back because if he closed his eyes, it was the same Gojyo as before. He released Hakkai, panting, and hissed, “I'm hungry, Hakkai, I'm so hungry. I'm hungry for you. Lemme have it.” He squeezed and gripped at Hakkai's hands and forearms. “Lemme... lemme...”

Hakkai gasped out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, and shivered when he felt one of Gojyo's hands release him to trace the erection pressing against his zipper. One finger slipped under and towards his ass, and Hakkai released a faint squeak he didn't know he had in him. Gojyo's insisted nudging whispered everything Gojyo was in the same sly tones _,_ and Hakkai didn't even have to speak to capitulate.

A breathy moan escaped him, and that was enough.

Gojyo tore the button off of Hakkai's pants, then slid his finger into the zipper, breaking the teeth loose. Hakkai very nearly admonished him for it, but then Gojyo's fingers were caressing his sac, his claw threatening to do the same to the seam of his briefs if he didn't remove them. He sat back and carefully removed his pants, folded them and set them far from the water's edge, but as he sat down again, Gojyo pawed at his tunic. “This, too. I wanna see all of you. It's nothing I ain't seen before, so don't be shy.”

Hakkai thought of resisting, but the pinpoint focus of Gojyo's gaze compelled him, but as he unfolded his legs and unbuttoned his tunic, Gojyo stopped teasing the hem of his shirt and pulled his legs into the water. The water was still warm, and Gojyo's touch warmer still. Gojyo traced the muscle of his lower leg, then ducked down into the water to kiss a trail from his foot to his ankle. Hakkai couldn't suppress a shiver at the contact, even as Gojyo slowly dragged out of the water and licked and nipped his way up to his thigh. He kept one hand teasing at Hakkai's balls and shaft, long fingernails tracing delicate lines, and Hakkai did his best to observe around pushing his sleeves off and setting his shirt aside.

The moment his hands touched the floor again, Gojyo seized his knees and leaned into the joint of Hakkai's legs. He swallowed Hakkai's dick down with one motion, and Hakkai swore he could feel Gojyo's tonsils. Perhaps Hakkai should have been afraid of those jagged teeth, but all Hakkai could feel was an assault of warm lips, wet mouth and togue, and more pressure than Hakkai could stand. Somehow, he sucked him impossibly _deeper_ , pulling all the blood to the head, and Hakkai moaned helplessly against the sensation. Gojyo snaked his hand up to Hakkai's chest, tracing one nipple, while the other held Hakkai at his hip, the thumb roaming back towards his balls and hole. Gojyo lapped deeply at him, the water sloshing against Hakkai's knees in rhythm with each bob of his head. Under the water, Gojyo was hard too, his hips jerking against nothing, but his ministrations only became more urgent. He pinched and rolled Hakkai's nipple, he drew circles and patterns against Hakkai's taint, his tongue laved the sensitive bit of skin at the base of his cock's head. Hakkai's knees twitched and jerked, his muscles contracting involuntarily, he wordlessly protested against the overwhelming wave of sensation. All of the touches were building the heat higher around him, and he was sure he wasn't going to be ready when all of it crashed down.

All at once, as if he could see him teetering on the edge, Gojyo stopped, all the swipes past his nipple, stopped teasing the sensitive skin behind his sac, backed up and wiped his mouth, then licked his lips. “You know that ain't what I want.” His thumb still lingered right near his asshole, teasing the pucker, then edged _just_ in, teasing around the ring. “Yes?”

Hakkai gasped, doubling over, and Gojyo reached up and pushed Hakkai back by his chest, exposing him, then pushed his thighs open. With his knees spread wide, Gojyo could see his prize, and Hakkai heard him lick his lips again, noisily, wetly. Hakkai cringed, his fingers scrabbling for purchase on the slick wood, but waited. Each tense breath hung in the still, humid air, the tension winding through him, and then, Hakkai felt the hot puffs of Gojyo's eager exhale against his hole.

“Oh, Gojyo, please--”

Gojyo dove in and swiped his tongue against Hakkai's entrance. Hakkai felt it like electricity down his spine, only able to shiver against the rush. God _damn_ him, that felt...

Gojyo took another long swipe, and Hakkai cried out, “Oh, Gojyo!” only to be answered with a warm chuckle.

It felt good, too good. Just the thought of it made him shiver from the combined thrill of the filthy act and the rush of unfamiliar sensation in such a sensitive place.

Gojyo leaned in again, and Hakkai braced for another lick, but instead, Gojyo's tongue wriggled its way into his hole. Hakkai had inserted his finger before, and there'd been a few anonymous flings on nights when Gojyo forgot to come home, but this was so very different. Gojyo's tongue was thick, wet, longer than expected, and somehow reaching deep in towards his core. It was burning hot, and each lash of his tongue flared in his belly. He couldn't stand the tension and reached for his cock, but Gojyo slammed his hands down on top of Hakkai's to pin them. Hakkai head a faint “uh-uh,” and shivered as Gojyo's tongue writhed in his insides.

Hakkai should have stopped him, but the monster inside Gojyo was demanding it, and the monster inside Hakkai begged for more. He knew, though, he knew what anyone knew about kappas: they'd eat your liver out through your rectum and suck your soul out just to get to it.

“Gojyo, please,” he panted, his voice a whine even to his own ears. “No, no...”

Gojyo stopped again, then wiped his mouth, panting. His skin was warm where it nearly brushed against Hakkai's leg. “I promised you, didn't I? I won't hurt ya.”

“Gojyo--” Hakkai had to swallow, because he couldn't inhale and he couldn't speak around the lump in his throat. “You know you're not yourself. You're not--”

“Hey.” Gojyo knelt up out of the water, dripping wet as he clambered up the step, then dipped down and kissed, then licked, the hollow at the base of Hakkai's neck. He traced the healing scratches on his neck, hesitance in his touch, then backed up to meet Hakkai's gaze again. His lips were kiss-bruised and swollen, but smiling, and there was a warm sort of ease in his eyes that Hakkai hadn't seen in days. “I promised. Don't you trust me? Even like this, I'm still me.”

His gaze was piercing, imploring, and under it all, the same Gojyo. “Still me.” _Still mine._

Hakkai sat up just enough to kiss his forehead, then pushed his hair back behind a pointed ear, deliberately running his finger down the delicate shell. “You don't need to stake your honor. I believe you.”

With that, gleeful ferocity returned to Gojyo's expression, and he pinned Hakkai down by the thighs, holding his legs wide open with an iron grip on the soft flesh under his buttocks. His tongue delved right back in, but before Hakkai could suppress a moan, Gojyo speared his fingers in alongside his tongue, pressed deeper, and found a bundle of nerves inside of Hakkai that made him scream. His prick jumped, and Gojyo chuckled with satisfaction. He licked and lapped at him a few more times, moaning softly into the join of Hakkai's legs.

Thank goodness Gojyo was just enjoying getting Hakkai off. Hakkai couldn't do anything for Gojyo from his position except wish he could stroke and squeeze his prick. Instead, he reached out and ran his fingers through Gojyo's hair. “Gojyo-- Gojyo-- Let me give you more.”

Suddenly, Gojyo's hand was on his foot, and just as quickly, Hakkai was in the water and against Gojyo's chest. Hakkai gasped in a deep breath, but Gojyo didn't pull him under. Gojyo instead sat Hakkai against him, letting Hakkai straddle his waist. His prick rubbed against Hakkai's, and he captured the both of them between in a vicegrip between them. His fingers popped back into Hakkai's hole, and Hakkai captured enough of his senses to grab Gojyo's dick and stroke with him. Gojyo pumped his fingers into Hakkai in rhythm, but with just a few strokes, Hakkai gave in, his back arching, and he spilled into the water in a white cloud.

Then, boneless and exhausted, he slumped against Gojyo, as helpless as any pearl diver in a kappa's grip.

Gojyo could have done anything he wanted. He didn't. He pushed his fingers deep into Hakkai one last time, then went stiff, his shoulders jerking urgently as his body seized up and spurted.

They stayed like that for a good few minutes, Gojyo slowly withdrawing from Hakkai to just hold him close in the cooling water. The relief in Gojyo, the relief Hakkai felt, the shivers of the aftershocks running through both of them, it was as if nothing had changed. This close, Hakkai couldn't see everything that had changed about him, and remembered that this was not a river monster forced tame. This was Gojyo, Gojyo's beating heart, Gojyo's wild spirit, Gojyo's warmth.

And yet, when Hakkai did untwist himself from Gojyo, it was still the youkai grinning at him. “That was tasty,” he murmured, and licked at Hakkai's lips. Hakkai felt his insides go ice cold, and he held Gojyo's face.

“Promise me you'll remember we did this when I come back.”

“Anything for you.” Hakkai felt the words bind them, and his face fell. It was stronger than before, stronger than ever. He reluctantly lifted his head again, and brushed his lips chastely to Gojyo's cheek.

“I need to wash, and I think we need to change your water. Pull the drain and wait for me to return.”

“Some pillow talk.” Gojyo crossed his arms, still smirking, but he released Hakkai and let him climb out. His legs still shook as he got onto dry land, and as the water dripped off his skin, chills ran through him.

Hakkai knew he'd made no progress, and giving in to Gojyo's urges might have only made things worse. This was one more thing Hakkai feared he would have to change back. This would likely become part of the ritual. Still, Gojyo sounded a little more himself, the roguish wink was still him. Gojyo was still there, and no matter how he asked to be turned loose, Gojyo would stay with him.

Kappas were loyal to the end, and that was what Gojyo had always been.

Under the scales and fangs, the feral eyes, beneath the water and creeping madness, Gojyo was still Gojyo, and Hakkai intended to keep him.


End file.
